~ How to live without sugar

Category Archives: Sweet Poison

Like many people, I came to sugar-free living via the excellent book Sweet Poison. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to give up the white stuff. In this book, David Gillespie clearly spells out what fructose does to us, and how it makes us fat. David recommends dextrose as an alternative sweetener for baking, and I have used it in the past with great success.

My regular readers will know that while I have been mostly sugar-free since 2012, I got completely derailed by both of my pregnancies and fell off the wagon big-time. Once I gave birth, I found it very easy to get back on it, and since the birth of my son I have been sugar-free again for months now, without any problems at all.

My brother, D and I had lined up a movie to watch the other night (Kingsman: The Secret Service, which I highly recommend if you want to escape reality for a couple of hours) and I really felt like a treat. I hadn’t done any sugar free baking for quite some time, nor am I in the habit of using alternative sweeteners in my usual meals or drinks.

I decided to make a chocolate and raspberry brownie and used dextrose as my sweetener. It was delicious and the three of us wolfed it down.

The next day I woke up feeling extremely tired, despite having had a reasonable night’s sleep (as much as one can have with a 10-month-old in the house). I got increasingly irritable as the morning went on, and completely blew my stack over something trivial. I was starving all day, and the next day, and the next. I don’t remember having a reaction like that to dextrose in the past, but it’s not one I care to repeat.

I have always viewed alternative sweeteners with suspicion (and use them sparingly) and will now be crossing dextrose firmly off my list. Of course, please remember that this was just me, and if you use dextrose without any ill effects, more power to you.

I guess what I recommend is to do your own research and see what effects alternative sweeteners have on your body. I am finding more and more that I simply cannot have my cake and eat it too.

Like this:

I just wanted to let you know that this is the end of the road for Giving Up Sugar. I’ve loved this blog, and have enjoyed being part of the sugar free community, but I just don’t think I have anything else useful to add. My heart wants to write different stuff now.

Giving up the white poison is awesome, and it WILL transform your relationship with food. It’s really hard at first – and for some people, it will mean a big change in your regular diet, but it gets easier over time. Eventually you rarely think about sugary treats at all.

I’m not going to stop blogging. If you are interested, you can follow me on my other blog Tots in Tawhero. The blog is definitely a work in progress, but I will be writing regularly on Tots in Tawhero next year. It’s more of a ‘life’ blog about parenting, community, and more of my brain dumps. You can follow us as we go on a Trim Healthy Mama journey and take a year long spending fast. Oh yep, it’s gonna be an interesting year!

Thanks for coming with me as I battled with my sugar addiction. If my ramblings helped you with your own journey, awesome. I wish you nothing but the best. If you have just started getting sugar free – YOU CAN DO IT, I promise.

After being repeatedly scuppered by bits of well-meaning sugar here and there, I resolved the other day to have none for the next two months so that I can properly withdraw from it. Having been reasonably sugar-free for the past wee while, I thought this would be a doddle.

Nope.

The first three days were fine, but on the fourth day, I could have eaten anything that wasn’t nailed down. It’s weird how it took so long to affect me, but hey, everyone is different. D looked on incredulously as I scoffed an entire bag of sugar-free snacks.

I also really, really, and I mean REALLY, wanted some chocolate. I’m happy to report that I didn’t cave in.

2. I reminded myself of how terrible I would feel both physically and emotionally if I ate chocolate. I would:

get a headache

feel sluggish and tired the next day

probably need to take a nap – most likely at a time when my baby would be awake…

feel like I had ‘messed up again’ and might spiral into negative thoughts like ‘I’m always going to be fat’. Who wants to have a pity party like that! Not moi.

3. I was prepared to counteract the munchies with sugar-free snacks. I got some of my favourite sugar-free treats so I didn’t feel deprived.

4. I let myself eat as much sugar-free food as I wanted. Appetite control will come later. I figured there was no point adding to my chocolate-craving misery by being hungry as well.

So if you’re just starting out on your sugar-free journey – be clear about why you are doing it, be prepared for the munchies to strike, and go easy on yourself. In the words of those terrible Rachel Hunter Pantene ads: It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

Feeling rubbish today is self-inflicted, and is one of the many costs of my addiction to sugar. I know this will be short-lived as my body adjusts to sugar-free living.

Like many overweight people, my body is often a huge source of shame and self-loathing. You hate yourself for what you are doing to your body, but feel powerless to stop. I know those sweet treats are not good for me, believe me I know. As I swallow them, I hate myself for ‘giving in’ over and over again. You think ‘If only I had more willpower’, and marvel at friends who are always in control of their weight.

But if my sugar-free journey has taught me anything, it’s that willpower is only a small part of the equation.

I am an addict.

I am addicted to sugar. I am just the same as someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol.

I cannot play around with this stuff. I am not someone who can get away with a bit here and there in my diet. That little bit here and there will put me right back to square one. All the willpower in the world cannot stop what happens to me physically when sugar is in my diet.

When I worked at a Soup Kitchen I would arrange for AA to come speak to our clients who were interested in giving up alcohol. I was required to be present for the meetings, and tried not to let my jaw drop each time one of the leaders recounted her battle with alcohol. I am almost unshockable, but her story was incredible. Anyway, I remember her telling us about the time she went to wedding when she was six months sober. She was told the punch was non-alcoholic so she had a glass. After one sip she said she felt almost electrified as her body went ‘Bam!’ The punch was alcoholic afterall, and her body responded as it always had. (This lady continues to be sober by the way.)

I suspect it is the same with sugar and I. My body is used to running on sugar highs. Even when it’s been out of my system for a while, it’s like my body remembers when a little bit of sugar is reintroduced, and says ‘Thank you! More please!’

Like this:

My ‘Giving Up Sugar’ mojo is at an all-time high today – which is probably just as well for day one.

I woke up with a steely resolve to eliminate that poison from my life again, and only felt that resolve slipping slightly this afternoon while I was waiting (and waiting…) at the hospital and my tummy started rumbling. The nearest food outlet only sold chocolate bars and cookies. Carry snacks people! I always forget. This is often my downfall. I get so ravenous that I am desperate to eat anything and usually make bad choices.

But not this time. This time I just rode out the hunger train. Goodness, I practically felt like an adult. 🙂

I was at the hospital doing some pre-admission stuff as I am having surgery next week. For gallstones. Yep, gallstones. Oh the glamour.

If you don’t know what they are, they’re little stones that form in your gallbladder. Sometimes they can get big enough to cause painful ‘attacks’ or blockages. I’ve only had a few attacks, but short of giving birth, it is the most pain I’ve ever experienced. Even more than the time I tore a ligament in my foot doing a stupendous backflip off the trampoline when I was 9.

Doctors don’t know 100% for sure what causes gallstones. It can be a combination of genetics, body weight, and perhaps diet. Once you have gallstones and they get large enough to annoy you, fatty foods will set off an attack (imagine a belt pulled oh-so-tightly around your ribs, coupled with a fever, nausea and vomiting). The last thing that triggered an attack for me was eating a slice of toast with Peanut Butter.

Apparently the link between gallstone development and diet is tenuous. For me, gallstones are in both sides of my family so I might have developed them anyway. All I know is that when I was sugar-free I never had an attack. Not a single one. Despite frequently eating Peanut Butter. And other good fats. (Read David Gillespie’s Big Fat Lies for more info on good fats.) When sugar started to creep back into my diet (ok, so my travels in America meant it exploded back into my diet) the attacks returned. So I think there is probably some sort of fat/sugar combo thing going on.

If you’re like me and have gallstones, giving up sugar in combination with staying away from vegetable fats may help ease your symptoms.

Anyway, Day One and a bit. So far, so good. I solemnly swear that I have not ingested any sugar today. Right, am off to make some snacks…

Here are some FAQ’s about a sugar-free pregnancy. If you have any questions that aren’t answered here, please post a comment below.

Is it wise to quit sugar (and make big changes to my diet) while pregnant?

Oh heck yeah! Short of quitting smoking or drugs, quitting sugar is one of the best things you can do for your baby! Sugar has absolutely nothing in it that you and your baby can’t get from healthier, less addictive sources (like fruit). More and more studies are showing that the mother’s prenatal diet strongly affects the child’s health outcomes later in life. Your unborn baby also tastes, and gets used to what you eat via the placenta. Avoiding the sweet stuff while pregnant may help your child to be less of a sweet tooth later on.

If your child is raised in a sugar-free household, you’ll be settling them up for some healthy food practices when they get older. Many people report behavioural issues reducing drastically when they eliminate sugar from their children’s diet. That’s got to be a huge incentive in my book.

I’m sugar-free, but I have such bad cravings for sweets! What should I do?

Hunt out some of the great sugar-free recipes lurking online. I highly recommend Spoonful of Sugar Free and I Quit Sugar for their healthy and delicious recipes. You can also substitute dextrose for sugar, when only a big ol’ slab of chocolate cake with cream will do.

Now, I’m being totally honest with you – I only managed to do six months sugar-free while pregnant. I wasn’t initially derailed by cravings or anything like that, instead it was by visiting friends for several weeks in America where having sugar was just unavoidable (you can read about it here). D and I decided to simply go with it and quit sugar again when we returned home. But once home, I found it impossible to give it up. My cravings were sooooo bad. I kept caving in (and sabotaging my withdrawal) and would beat myself up about it. I mean really berate myself for being a crap Mum, and for not giving my baby the best possible start in life that I could. And for being a miserable failure at quitting sugar. Finally D said to me ‘Angela, you’re pregnant. It’s perfectly normal to have strong cravings for sweet things. Just have it! We can quit again once the baby is here’. And that’s exactly what we did.

So if this is you, if you are struggling to keep your cravings in check and feeling like you’re the worst mother on the planet – be kind to yourself. Eat sugar-free as much as you possibly can, and quit entirely once baby is here.

I’m pregnant and want to give up sugar. How do I do it?

You can either quit gently (I’d recommend Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar programme if this sounds like you) or go cold turkey. I went cold turkey, cause that’s just how I roll. Either way, here are some tips to make it easier on yourself.

Quit when your social calendar isn’t full. It was the beginning of November when I first discovered Sweet Poison. As Christmas was coming up, the first time D and I quit we decided to be kind to ourselves and wait until AFTER Christmas/New Year’s. We waited until we were back at work, so we didn’t have lots of free time to think about food. Stay in for a couple of weeks instead of going out for dinner at night. Avoid your favourite cafe. Have friends over to your house, instead of going to theirs.

Get sugar in all its variants out of your house. Give it away to your neighbours. Just get rid of it. You don’t want to be sitting at home on day two with that stash of chocolate you always keep in the top right-hand cupboard calling your name.

Generally I think soft drink is the devil, but get some Coke/Sprite Zero, or other zero-sugar drink to get you through the withdrawal period, if you think it might help. Trust me, after a few weeks you will no longer want the stuff anymore. I had it for about a week (that’s all I could stand) and it helped me when I got cravings.

Expect to have a few days of feeling rubbish. It passes. Sooner than you’d think.

Really think about if you’re ready to quit. It’s okay if you’re not. Just file the idea of quitting sugar away for when you are. For me, I’d just had enough. I’d hit bottom. I was so embarrassed and ashamed of my over-eating that carrying on as I was just wasn’t an option anymore. Reading Sweet Poison was the first thing that gave me hope in like, forever. My daughter is my main motivation for staying sugar-free. I don’t want her to grow up with a weight problem, or have the food issues that I did.

I had my 6-week scan yesterday which confirmed that yes, I do have a sack of baby cells right where they should be. It was quite a relief to find that all is well.

So far I have been lucky and have only had one bout of morning sickness. Maybe it will hit me in the next few weeks – but I’m hoping I will be one of those lucky ladies who don’t get it at all.

I will be 7 weeks pregnant tomorrow, and weird things are already happening to my relationship with food.

Ok, so no morning sickness, and no super-human-sense-of-smell, but I have definitely started to go off certain foods. Like right now, the thought of having anything milky or creamy makes me think ‘bleeugh!’. This is playing havoc with my beloved meal-planning. D and I started meal-planning several months ago to help save money, food wastage and time at the supermarket (I HATE supermarket shopping) and time spent faffing around thinking ‘ummm, what do I want for dinner?’. It’s awesome, and really works for us. But last night I could not face cooking our planned Green Curry Chicken. Meal-planning is just gonna have to go out the window for the next few months.

Today I have had a strong craving for orange juice, which is not the best when one is trying to live as sugar-free as possible. I finally gave in this afternoon and bought two oranges. Of course, this doesn’t get you much juice, but it hit the spot. I really hope that this doesn’t continue, but if it does then I’m going to be kind to myself and just have the damn juice. At least I’ll make it myself, so I know there’s no added sugar, like so many of the commercial brands of juice.

I’ve also been hungrier than usual, and am trying to have protein with breakfast (my second craving is for bacon), and limiting any extra food to vegemite on toast or crackers.

I went for a run today, and plan to continue running for as long as I can. I feel good that this baby will be getting a great start nutritionally courtesy of his sugar-free Mum.

Also, I started a new job last week. It’s part-time, which just feels perfect for my situation right now.

Bar getting engaged and married to D, seeing that plus sign come up on the pregnancy test was the most stunning moment. I burst into tears, and raced out to the living room. D was on a conference call (he’s studying by distance), and I yelled something like ‘Can you get off the phone right NOW please?’ He thought something awful had happened.

We both sat around like stunned mullets in shock for a bit, and then amused ourselves thinking of silly baby names – our current favourite is Agamemnon (just a name from Greek Mythology I’ve always remembered). Imagine calling that to ‘come in for dinner!’ 🙂

I like to think that going sugar-free and losing weight gave me a helping hand in the conception battle. Interestingly, since going sugar-free, I’ve had to lower my dose of thyroid medication. My thyroid levels will have to be very closely monitored now, as you can miscarry if the levels aren’t quite right. But I do wonder if being sugar-free has improved my thyroid function somewhat.

Anyway, aside from our ‘team’ in our Christian community, we’re not telling anyone, including our parents, until it looks like all is well. But it’s nice to be able to share my news anonymously with you all out there in Blogland. If you’re of the praying persuasion, I’d appreciate your prayers that everything will be just fine.

Two weekends ago D and I went to a friend’s house for dinner. My friend is an AMAZING cook, and is one of those people who thinks nothing of whipping up a three-course meal for dinner guests. It’s effortless to her.

We dined like kings: pumpkin soup for the entrée, the biggest roast pork I’ve ever seen, and her home-made lemon meringue pie. D and I had discussed our dinner strategy beforehand. We could have advised my friend of our sugar-free status, but frankly we both thought ‘What the hell. Let’s just eat what’s put in front of us’. It was the most delicious mistake. That lemon meringue pie was divine, and I savoured every mouthful.

My friend and her husband are normally very healthy eaters, so the dinner was a big treat for them as well. My friend immediately commented on how much weight I’d lost, and asked me how I did it, as she was doing Weight Watchers. D and I ended up having a great discussion with them about sugar in our foods, and I think we convinced them to give a sugar-free life a go. Of course, it didn’t stop any of us from eating that pie!

The next day I felt fine. I got up early and ran for 30 minutes, in a vain attempt to run off the huge dinner. But the day after that…yuck. I had a bad headache, and felt very hungry. The increased hunger lasted for a few days, and I ate more (sugar-free) because of it. I felt really bad about myself, and watched the scales go up for the first time in weeks. This led to my second lapse.

Friday was my last day of work. Even though I feel that leaving is the best decision for me, it was still incredibly hard. Saying goodbye to my clients felt lousy, like I’d let them down. I know I will see many of them in my out-of-work life, but the consistency of seeing someone every day means a lot to marginalised people. They don’t trust easily, and for good reason.

One of my lovely work mates gave me a box of Roses chocolates as a farewell gift (obviously she hadn’t heard about me being sugar-free). I admit I’d entertained thoughts of having a box of Roses chocolates on my birthday – coming up in July. But here they were, calling my name. I greatly prefer other brands of chocolate, but I guess because I used to get a box of Roses chocolates for my birthday when I was a kid, I associate them with special occasions.

D picked me up from work and we headed away for the weekend, box of chocolates in tow. We got to our destination, and said to him ‘Damn it! I’ve left my job, and feel I need to celebrate. I want some chocolates!’ We both ate several.

They were pretty awful. I really didn’t like them. They just weren’t as nice as I remembered. I’m not sure why I kept eating them, I think maybe I was already feeling bad about myself, so one more chocolate wasn’t going to hurt.

We both started feeling rather sick, so the box of chocolates got put in a cupboard. D had to take a nap the next day, as he was so tired. I’m pretty sure the culprit was sugar. For me, it hit two days later. I was starving all day on Sunday, and it took every ounce of my willpower not to eat the rest of the chocolates. I felt slow and tired, and D can testify to my grumpiness.

Monday has been better – I’ve had a mild headache, and the hunger has abated somewhat. I very gingerly stepped on the scales to find I’d only put on a kilo over the last two weeks. Phew! I went for a run, and really enjoyed it. I’m up to 5ks, and am focusing on getting speedier.

The result of my falling-off-the-wagon-twice-episode is that I’m actually scared to eat sugar now. The minute or two of yum is not worth the days of feeling rubbish that follow. The sheer strength of my physical reaction to it astounds me. It’s so addictive. It has increased my resolve to get back on track. Over the past fourth months I’ve become used to not feeling hungry, not craving chocolate, being in control of my eating, and losing weight. I like not beating myself up for cracking open a packet of biscuits or a bag of lollies, yet again. I like the sugar-free Sanjawa.

Tomorrow I will have been sugar-free for three months. On one hand, it feels like quite an achievement. When I started on this journey I was doubtful that I could do it. Doubtful that all those things David Gillespie promised me would happen.

Now I’m three months in, on the other hand it feels like it’s been fairly easy. I’ve had a few times when I’ve had sugar (see my last post, for instance), but on the whole I think I’ve done well. The first few weeks were a struggle, but the last month has flown by, and hasn’t felt too hard at all. I haven’t felt the need to post much, as this sugar-free thing is seeming rather normal now.

The last two days I wanted to stuff a piece of chocolate cake in my mouth REALLY badly, but that’s because it was in my face all weekend. I was at a 3 day workshop with my clients, and was responsible for serving the food. Our chefs included this amazing chocolate cake. One of my clients is 80, and he said it was the best chocolate cake he’d ever had in his whole life. It looked so good, but I resisted. The thought of how bad I would feel afterwards was enough to make me say no.

But besides the Great Chocolate Cake Temptation of 2012, I haven’t wanted sweet stuff much at all. I make dextrose brownie, and that satisfies any desire for a treat. And I think the desire for a treat is tied up with how much I just love to bake, and not the food itself. Last week I went without morning tea for several days – which is unheard of for me. I love that I no longer feel ravenously hungry most of the time. That I’m not climbing the walls if I don’t get dinner until after 7pm. When I think about my old eating patterns I just cringe. And I remember how powerless I felt over my cravings. A sugar-free life wins. No contest.